http://www.jewishworldreview.com --
NO ONE has mastered the fine Yiddish art of chutzpah like the Rev. Jesse
Jackson. Having spent November and December stoking the fires of racial suspicion and hatred,
he then places a call to President-elect Bush to offer his guidance on racial "healing."

Like all good Republicans, Bush took the call. He should not have. He should have told an aide
to tell the Reverend that he expected a public apology -- after which he'd be delighted to meet
personally with him to talk about reconciliation.

But my guess is that Bush is like so many other Republicans -- utterly naive about his
opponents. He probably believes that once Jackson gets to know him, he'll realize what a fine
fellow he really is, and Jackson will understand how wrong he was to accuse Bush of all those
terrible things.

And they were terrible. Jackson compared so-called "voting irregularities" in Florida with
hoses turned on civil-rights marchers during the 1950s. The word "Selma" has been on Jackson's
lips almost daily since the election. Without evidence, he has asserted that there was "a
systematic plan to disenfranchise black voters." Jackson also claimed to have found "a clear
pattern of voter suppression" in Florida.

Now, if these charges were true, they would be clear violations of the Voting Rights Act, as
well as a violation of the Fourteenth Amendment. Yet despite dozens of lawsuits filed in the
aftermath of the election, there has been none alleging that blacks were turned away from the
polls, or stopped by roadblocks, or "suppressed" in any other fashion (in fact, black voter
turnout was up 65 percent since 1996 -- a higher percentage of blacks than whites voted on Nov.
7).

USA Today looked into the roadblock story and found that the one near Tallahassee was a
routine check for faulty auto equipment, which resulted in police issuing citations or warnings
to 18 drivers -- six to minorities and 12 to whites. The so-called "roadblock" near Tampa
turned out to be a police attempt to catch a burglar who had victimized a black neighborhood.

But Jackson charged ahead. He compared the Supreme Court's decision to Dred Scott, and offered
that George W. Bush was becoming president through "Nazi tactics."

Jesse, being Jesse

These accusations have found fertile ground in the black community, where rumors are flying
that blacks were turned away from polling places in droves. One caller to C-SPAN said
President-elect Bush needs to investigate the plan she has heard about again and again to
prevent all black people from voting in 2004. Many black Americans are nearly apoplectic with
rage over what they perceive to be a completely illegitimate election.

Much has been said and written about the cynical desire on the part of "civil rights" leaders
like Jackson to keep alive the sense of victimization among black people. But rarely has the
tactic been on such obvious display.

What is almost equally dismaying, though, is the tendency on the part of Republicans to accept
these "spokesmen" as legitimate. As Deroy Murdoch has written in a brilliant piece published in JWR, Republicans "always postulate the good intentions of our opponents while seeming
secretly dubious about our own goodwill."

In truth, Murdoch argues, Republicans are actually "too nice." Sen. John Ashcroft conceded
defeat to a dead man rather than seem unkind to his widow, who will take the seat in January.
Republicans, caricatured as skinflints who would take crusts of bread from the mouths of
starving children, have fallen all over themselves to outspend Bill Clinton on health care,
school to work programs and even the IRS.

The Miami Herald has reported that at least 455 felons voted on Election Day in Florida. Has
any Republican uttered a peep about it? No, it might turn out that half of them were black and
then Republicans would be accused of racism.

Here's what Republicans need to understand -- the left is not benevolent or well-motivated. It
does not accuse you of racism because it believes it to be true, but rather because it gives
the left status and power. And when leading Republicans do things like take Jesse Jackson's
calls after he has leveled scurrilous and utterly baseless charges, they enhance the power of
demagogues and ensure that this corrupt process will never
end.